Three Killed in West Virginia Mine Blast

Published 2:49 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

An explosion in an underground mine in West Virginia killed three people and injured three others early Wednesday, authorities said.

The six workers were digging an air shaft about 1,000 feet underground at the time of the blast at the McElroy Mining Co., said Jeff Gunn, a Marshall County emergency dispatcher.

The three injured were brought to the surface by mine rescue teams. Two of the injured were taken to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh and a third was taken to Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Glen Dale.

The bodies of the victims remained in the air shaft at 6:30 a.m., said Thomas Hoffman, vice president of investor and public relations for Pittsburgh-based Consolidation Coal. McElroy is a division of Consolidation Coal.

The six workers were employed by a contractor hired to dig the air shaft on Nauvoo Ridge in Marshall County, in the northern tip of the state.

An air shaft is a large, vertical hole that goes down from the surface and connects to the coal seam, allowing workers to move air in and out of the mine, Hoffman said.

"They use explosives to break up the rock and take it out. They use acetylene torches to cut metal and do work. There could be any number of things that could cause this," Hoffman said.

The shaft being dug was about 24 feet in diameter and was not finished. About 60 feet remained between the bottom of the shaft and the coal seam, Hoffman said.

The mine therefore was not affected by the explosion and operations there continued Wednesday. McElroy mine employs about 400 people.

"The mine itself is not in the area, it's several thousand feet away. There is no physical connection between the bottom of the shaft and the coal mine," Hoffman said.

The names of the dead and injured were not immediately released.

Their employer, Central Cambria Drilling of Evensburg, Pa., could not immediately be reached for comment.